Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A figure consisting of three curved lines or branches, or three stylized human arms or legs, radiating from a common center.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A widely distributed symbolic device composed of three arms or branches radiating from a center.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A figure composed of three branches, usually curved, radiating from a center, as the figure composed of three human legs, with bent knees, which has long been used as a badge or symbol of Sicily and of the Isle of Man.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any figure or object composed of three interlocked spirals, limbs (especially bent human legs), or any similar symbol with three protrusions and a threefold rotational symmetry.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a figure consisting of three stylized human arms or legs (or three bent lines) radiating from a center

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek triskelēs, three-legged : tri-, tri- + skelos, leg.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek τρισκέλιον (triskelion) or τρισκελής (triskeles), three-legged.

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Examples

  • Nah, it's just an Austrian attempt at the Welsh triskelion.

    She's Got Leeeegs... 2010

  • However, I don't think the rabb...er, lagomorphs in your triskelion emblem agree with you.

    Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time 6: Lord of Chaos (1994) Adam Roberts 2010

  • Not entirely sure I am the most "English" person in Parliament I'm currently staring at a giant Manx triskelion that even Lindsay Hoyle would be proud of!

    Happy St Andrews Day Kerron Cross 2006

  • Will recognized the symbol as the triskelion of the Armies of the Mighty.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • A hundred yards away, a headless dragon engine was using its neck as a metallic whip to breach one of the triskelion towers.

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  • Even when the artificer made sure to mention Tawnos's inventions, such as the triskelion, a mobile fortification, the eyes of the nobles glazed over and Tawnos could almost hear their ears clicking off.

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  • A hundred yards away, a headless dragon engine was using its neck as a metallic whip to breach one of the triskelion towers.

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  • Even when the artificer made sure to mention Tawnos's inventions, such as the triskelion, a mobile fortification, the eyes of the nobles glazed over and Tawnos could almost hear their ears clicking off.

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  • Isle of Man, by the way, is a British protectorate whose symbol is an armored triskelion, a three-legged creation that appears always to be running despite having no head -much like some politicians who come immediately to mind.

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

  • Isle of Man, by the way, is a British protectorate whose symbol is an armored triskelion, a three-legged creation that appears always to be running despite having no head -much like some politicians who come immediately to mind.

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

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